Amoeba Presents continues with three upcoming shows. The first is singer/songwriter Valerie June, who will bring her Appalachian folk-tinged rock to the Bootleg Bar Sept. 20. Valerie June’s recently released Pushin’ Against a Stone (available on CD or LP) was produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who lends some rock oomph to her blues-folk sound.

Doors are at 8 p.m., and the show starts at 9 p.m. It’s 21+, and tickets are $12-$15; they aren’t yet on sale but will be available for purchase here.

She’s also playing a live set at Amoeba Hollywood Sept. 19 at 6:30 p.m., so make sure to make it out for that free show. Listen to the rollicking “You Can’t Be Told” below.

The weekend of October 15th and 16th, Death Cab For Cutie, Empire of The Sun, DFA 1979, Beach House, The Hold Steady, Cut Copy, and many more will play on the island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Along with two stages of music and its signature Ferris Wheel, the festival will also have art installations, food vendors, and tons of local independent merchants.

Enter to win a pair of VIP passes for the festival ONLINEor enter to win at either Amoeba San Francisco or Amoeba Berkeley!

As reported by the BBC and other UK media sources, the famed British author JG Ballard, best known for his novels Crash and Empire of the Sun, died earlier today following several years of illness. He was 78. As noted on the BBC site, despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Ballard instead insisted that his books were, "picturing the psychology of the future."

Ballard's most acclaimed novel (one of 15 he wrote and he also penned some short stories collections), Empire of the Sun, was based on firsthand experience drawn from his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China. "I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on," Ballard was quotied as saying in reference to the three years he spent interned in a prison camp run by the Japanese from age 12 during World War II. and from which he drew much material for the fictionalized account of his childhood in his famed book.

Empire of the Sun was later made into a film by Steven Spielberg. Meanwhile, his controversial book Crash, about sexual desires stimulated by car crashes, was made into the 1996 film Crash by director David Cronenberg and stars James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger, and Rosanna Arquette. Ballard/Cronenberg's Crash isnot to be confused with the similarly titled 2005 Paul Haggis movie set in Los Angeles and involving a collection of interrelated characters.